Matt Prater was “clueless” about his record field goal

Sure, Broncos kicker Matt Prater knew what the NFL record for the longest field goal was.

He just didn’t know he was going to be asked to break it.

Prater said he was caught off guard when asked to kick a 64-yard attempt just before halftime yesterday, which he nailed to establish a new distance record.

“I was clueless,” Prater said, via Mike Klis of the Denver Post. “I didn’t know he was going to call for the field goal. I didn’t know the kick would be from where it was. I think it helped me to get out there late. Because I had to rush out there, I didn’t have much time to think about it.”

Maybe that helped, because he drilled it, eclipsing the previous mark of 63 set by Tom Dempsey, Jason Elam, Sebastian Janikowski and David Akers.

Elam and Janikowski hit theirs in Denver also, but Prater said he thought the bitter cold negated any advantage the altitude gave him.

Of course, Prater wasn’t the only one unaware. Long snapper Aaron Brewer said he realized it was long, and just wanted to make sure he did his part to prevent a long return such as the Auburn win over Alabama the weekend before.

“I didn’t know it was for the longest,” Brewer said. “I just knew I was supposed to run down and cover it. So I ran down and turned around and everyone was going crazy. It was pretty cool.”

For a bunch of guys who barely know where they are on the field, they’re pretty good at their jobs.

Congrats to Prater but there’s something to be said about kicking in Denver at altitude. It’s just easier to kick a long field goal there than anywhere else and that should be taken into consideration.

Jeesh…, what’s with all the hate on Prater? I’m no Denver fan, but you gotta acknowledge the ‘feat'(haha).

Anyway that football is a rock in bitter cold weather regardless of altitude so it definately took something. I’ve always questioned Dempsey’s kick because he had a metal plate on his shoe, but would never hate on the guy for it…

OMG! Are you people kidding me?? Now besides altitude we’re talking air density, dew point & humidity….

Unless any of you geniuses are an accomplished physicist that can provide us all an equation that compares sea level with altitude, then formulates in the air density, dew point & humidity of yesterday’s weather conditions and compare it to any given field goal attempt you really are talking out of your derrière and have ‘no leg’ (ha ha) to stand on…

Any 60+ yard field goal is an awesome accomplishment, and 64 is certainly incredible – altitude or not. However, there are probably a dozen kickers in the NFL who might be able to kick 65.

The main constraint on breaking the record is that your team has to be in the exact right spot on the field at the very end of the first half (or second half, but only then in a certain scoreboard situations). For kickers like Prater, Janikowski, Zeurlein, et. al., the hardest part is keeping it straight enough from that far out.